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An Analytical Study On CSR Expenditure of Bse Listed Companies in India
An Analytical Study On CSR Expenditure of Bse Listed Companies in India
Abstract
Spending on CSR is not new in India. It has raised a lot of expectations and gained growing
recognition as a new and emerging form of governance in India after legislating of CSR mandate
in Companies Act, 2013, w.e.f 1st April, 2014. India has become the first country to mandate
CSR through a statutory provision. Countries like U.K, U.S.A, China, Germany and Australia
have voluntary guidelines for CSR spending/reporting. Others like France, Denmark, Sweden,
Indonesia and Malaysia have mandatory guidelines, but they follow a specific code and all
companies do not come under the purview of mandatory guidelines. There is no strong
legislation, as in India, for CSR spending. Section 135 of Companies Act makes it mandatory
for all the companies with turnover of Rs.1,000 crore and more or a net worth of Rs.500 crore
and more or net profit of Rs.5 crore and more to spend at least two percent of their three-year
average profit every year on CSR activity. If the company fails to spend such amount, the Board
shall give in its report the reasons for not spending. The paper investigates the CSR spending
status of BSE listed companies for the year 2014-15. Data is collected from Business
Responsibility Reports and Annual Reports of BSE listed companies and also grades are given to
companies based on their CSR expenditure. Thus CSR Act has made companies understand their
responsibilities towards the society and act conscientiously. It has opened new opportunities for
all stakeholders to devise innovative ways to contribute to equitable social and economic
development.
Keywords: CSR, Business Responsibility Reports, Companies Act 2013, Section 135, CSR
Spending
Introduction
The concept of CSR spending is not new in India. It has gained growing recognition as a new
and emerging form of governance in India with the inclusion of mandatory CSR in the New
Companies Act 2013, which has been enforced from 1st April 2014 in India. Ministry of
Corporate Affairs (MCA), Government of India on February 27, 2014 has notified the rules for
CSR spending u/s135 of the New Companies Act 2013 along with Companies (Corporate Social
Responsibility Policy) Rules, 2014 effective from 1st April 2014.
Corporate Social Responsibility is the concept according to which the corporation has to
undertake the responsibility of their activities affecting the society at large. The economic
globalization resulted in a demand for corporations to play a central role in efforts to eliminate
poverty, achieve equitable and accountable systems of governance and ensure environmental
security. There was a need to make business a part of society and to maximize positive benefits
that business endeavor can bring to human and environmental well being and to minimize the
harmful effects of irresponsible business. The scheme which was developed from this concern is
known as the “Corporate Social Responsibility” (Saksena, H.)
CSR has become the soul of every business in today‟s competitive world and it lends a
competitive edge and ensures sustainable growth. The impact of corporate activities on the
environment and society has increased the importance of sustainable practices and the corporate
social responsibility. The increasing pressures from various agents have made companies
implement CSR activities and, consequently disclose their behavior and achievements.
Government action has become necessary to make public disclosure mandatory because
government can compel disclosure from private entities, legislate performance in transparency
and create disclosure requirements backed by the legitimacy of democratic processes.
With a view to provide a framework for companies (private and public) to implement need-based
CSR activities, The Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government Of India issued the National
Voluntary Guidelines on Social, Environmental and Economic Responsibilities of business
(NVG SEE 2011) in July 2011 to encourage Indian inc to make voluntary disclosures on the
triple bottom line in line with sustainability reporting framework of GRI.
Based on NVG SEE 2011, in August 2012, the Securities and Exchange Board of India assuming
the significance on disclosure of non- financial measures and to drive transparency in the
marketplace, made Business Responsibility Reporting (BRR) mandatory for the top 100 entities
by market capitalization on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange
(NSE). The BRRs should be included in the annual report filings for the financial years ending
on or after December 31, 2012 effectively applicable from financial year 2012-13.
There was no strong legislation, as in India, for CSR spending and spending by corporate sector
was voluntary. Guidelines released in July 2011 were also voluntary in nature. The Companies
Act, 2013 has detailed provisions relating to CSR making it mandatory for companies above a
certain size. With this, India has become the first country to mandate CSR through a statutory
provision. Countries like U.K, U.S.A, China, Germany and Australia have voluntary guidelines
for CSR spending/reporting. Others like France, Denmark, Sweden, Indonesia and Malaysia
have mandatory guidelines, but they follow a specific code and all companies do not come under
the purview of mandatory guidelines. Section 135 of Companies Act 2013 makes it mandatory
for all the companies with turnover of Rs.1,000 crore and more or a net worth of Rs.500 crore
and more or net profit of Rs.5 crore and more to spend at least two percent of their three-year
average profit every year on CSR activity. If the company fails to spend such amount, the Board
shall give in its report the reasons for not spending.
Considering the importance and wide interest in the subject of CSR, the study aims to compare
the actual CSR amount that a company spends in a financial year, after implementation of
Companies Act 2013.
of equal distribution of wealth and socio-economic development. CSR has evolved in phases and
therefore, its history and evolution in India can be studied in different phases.
conducted a nationwide workshop on CSR where major stress was given to social accountability
and transparency.
2009
In order to encourage Indian corporate to report on CSR issue, Ministry of Corporate Affairs
(MCA) of the Government of India issued „CSR Voluntary Guidelines 2009‟ in December 2009,
effective from financial year 2009-10. These guidelines were voluntary and require business
entities to formulate a CSR policy to guide its strategic planning and a roadmap for its CSR
initiatives. Thus, government regulations existed but there was absence of monitoring and
enforcement of these regulations on the part of government (Scott, W.R. (2004)
2011
Based on a revision of the Voluntary Guidelines, National Voluntary Guidelines for the Social,
Environmental and Economic Responsibilities of Business, were launched on 8th July 2011. The
2011 Guidelines aimed to help companies use their entrepreneurship to effectively contribute to
the economic and social betterment of communities by disclosing their responsible business
practices based on an apply or explain approach and second, to make their operations
sustainable in a manner that enables them to meet their current needs without compromising the
needs of future generations. The NVGs provide nine broad-based Principles on responsible
business behavior, each with recommended Core Elements. While the 2011 Guidelines identify
the areas where responsible practices need to be adopted, the accompanying Reporting
Framework provides a disclosure template which can be used to report on performance in these
areas. The Guidelines also provide a framework for responsible business action for Indian
multinational companies planning to invest or already operating in other parts of the world.
2012
The Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) releases a circular dated 13 August 2012, which
mandates top 100 listed companies based on market capitalization listed on BSE and NSE to
report their environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives. SEBI developed a business
responsibility report (BRR) framework based on the nine principles of NVGs and required these
top 100 listed companies to include the BRR within their annual reports.
2013
Release of Guidelines on Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability for Central Public
Sector Enterprises
Regulatory systems have potential to promote CSR implementation among organizations with
stricter monitoring and enforcement. Section 135 of Companies Act 2013 prescribes that each
company with a net worth of Rs.500 crore or a turnover of Rs.1,000 crore or net profit of Rs.5
crore will be required to spend a minimum of 2 % of its average net profit for the immediately
preceding three financial years on CSR activities in India included in Schedule VII of the Act.
It replaces the Companies act 1956 and emphasizes carrying forward the agenda of Corporate
Social Responsibility. If a company is unable to meet 2% clause of CSR spending in a year it
should specify the reasons for not spending that amount in its Director‟s Report published in the
annual report. One of the major drawbacks in the provisions which may affect the efficiency of
the CSR implementation is the fact that there is no penal provision regarding non-compliance of
the provisions with respect to spending or in reporting part. However, there are apparent penal
consequences if a company fails to even set up the CSR committee or fails to create a policy etc.
If a company fails to spend the money, it only has to report this along with reasons.
With the aim of formulating and monitoring the CSR policy of a company, a CSR Committee of
the Board needs to be constituted. Section 135 of the 2013 Act requires the CSR Committee to
consist of at least three directors, including an independent director. However, CSR Rules
exempts unlisted public companies and private companies that are not required to appoint an
independent director from having an independent director as a part of their CSR Committee and
stipulates that the Committee for a private company and a foreign company need have a
minimum of only 2 members.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Saha (2013) studied the current practices of CSR in various Indian companies. For this study, 18
companieswere selected on random basis from the depository of the Global Reporting Initiative
(GRI).The study concluded that the performances of the selected companies on CSR are good.
Many companies however over performed whereas many couldn‟t perform well to that extent.
Verma et al., (2015) studied Corporate Social Responsibility expenditure of the ten largest and
most powerful companies in India prior to the implementation of CSR provisions of Companies
Act 2013- Studies suggest that large corporations are precursors to CSR commitments in a
society and hence, mandatory CSR spending in large companies is likely to positively influence
CSR in smaller companies.
B. Ramesh (2015) conducted a study to get an an overview on the New CSR provision envisaged
under section 135, and investigated the spending pattern of Indian companies contributing
towards CSR activities.
Ramanujam & Sangeetha (2013) stated that at last, Indian Parliament found time to enact the
new law for companies in India. They highlighted on the tax implications, Sooner or later, claims
are bound to be made on the amounts spent on CSR as the expenditure is mandated under the
law. Also what happens if companies choose to play safe and contribute to the Prime Minister‟s
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Arti Sharma & Bhavesh Vanapriya / An analytical study on CSR Expenditure of BSE listed Companies
in India
National Relief Fund to avoid all controversies? Such contributions will also be tax deductible.
They concluded that every effort should be made to see that there is no litigation in
implementing the new policy. Both the corporate houses and the department of company affairs
owe it to the public at large to ensure the success of the new initiative.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
With an objective to explore CSR spending in India, twenty five companies listed on Bombay
Stock Exchange (BSE) are taken on the basis of the availability of latest annual reports of
financial year 2014-15. The study is based on secondary data, presented in tables and graphs.
BSE listed companies are the largest and the most influential, establishing benchmarks for others
to measure up to and also in August 2012 Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) mandated
to publish Business Responsibility Report (BRR) separately or along with their Annual Report
for top 100 companies listed on BSE.
In order to analyse sector specific CSR, sample firms were grouped into five categories
following Global Industrial Classification Standard (GICS). GICS is an industry taxonomy
developed in 1999 by MSCI and Standard & Poor‟s (S&P) for use by the global financial
community. It consists of 10 sectors and for the purpose of the study some sectors are clubbed
and five sectors are considered for the study. For example Energy sector and Material Sector are
clubbed and named as Energy and Material. The five sectors include Energy and Materials
(E&M), Industrial & Consumer Discretionary (I&CD), Consumer Staple and Health Care (CS &
HC), Financials & IT (F&IT) and Telecommunications and Media (TC)
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
Bank
DLF F&IT 12.82 12.82 Nil 2
Zee Entertainment TC & 19.3 16.8 2.5 1.74
Enterprises Media
The above chart shows the top spenders among the top 25 companies with the percentage of PAT
spent for the year 2014-15.
From the table 1, it can be observed that out of 25 companies, only 13 companies have fulfilled
the criteria of spending 2% of PAT of average of PAT of immediately preceding three financial
years. Rest 12 companies have unspent amount on CSR, thus not fulfilling the criteria of
prescribed expenditure. It can be seen from Table 1 and Figure 1 that among 12 companies not
fulfilling the criteria, Kotak Mahindra Bank has spent least on CSR with 0.61% of average of
PAT of FY 12, 13 and 14, followed by Hindustan Zinc with 0.78%, i.e not even spending 1%
also.
Looking at the table, it can be seen that in terms of value, TCS has spent highest on CSR with
218.42 crores against the prescribed amount of 285 crores with 1.53%, followed by NTPC with
205.18 crores against 283.48 crores and 1.45% and then Tata Steel with 171.46 crores against
168.26 crores prescribed with 2.04%. Amongst these top three companies in terms of spending
of amount, only Tata Steel which is on third position fulfilled the criteria of 2%. Adani
Enterprise has spent least 2.08 crores but against 1.76 crores i.e 2.36% and spending above 2%.
It can be observed from Table 1 the percentage of profits spent on CSR. The list changes its
character once we look at the amount spent in absolute terms. Looking at the amount spent TCS
tops the list but by percentage spent it is on 15th position and by looking at the percentage spent
GMR tops the list with 2.58% with least spending of 2.92 crores on 24th position after Adani
Enterprise.
In line with the study conducted on CSR Spending Estimates including Business Responsibility
Report Analysis by Partners in Change- Making Corporate Social Responsibility Your Business,
the companies are analysed on the basis of how much they spent on CSR in FY 14-15, keeping
in mind the 2% clause which has come into effect, four grades were set. Companies that spent
2% or more than 2% of their average profits of the previous three years in FY 14-15 were
categorized under Grade A; those who spent between 1 and 2% under Grade B; those who spent
between 1 to .5% under Grade C and companies that spent lower than that in the last category, i.e
Grade D. This can be seen from the following Table 2.
2 and More than 2 % of Average Net Profit of FY 11-12, 12-13 & 13-14 A
Less than 0.5 of Average Net Profit of FY 11-12, 12-13 & 13-14 D
Among the 25 companies, 13 fell under Grade A; 9 came under Grade B and only 3 in Grade C,
which can be seen in Chart 2.
on the top with 2.58%, and four Companies spend exactly 2%. The table below shows which
companies went beyond the 2% rule with percentage spent and also the grades in which they fall.
Sectors No. of
companies
Energy & Material (E&M) 6
Industrial and Consumer Discretionary (I&CD) 9
Consumer Staple and Health Care (CS& HC) 4
Financials & IT (F&IT) 5
Telecommunications & Media (TC) 1
From the table 1 and table 3, it can be said that companies fulfilling the criteria of 2% and more
are from various sectors. No sector specific changes have been seen except for Financial and
IT companies which have not fulfilled the criteria and their spending on CSR falls in Grade B or
Grade C. In Financials and IT sector only 1 out of 5 has fulfilled the criteria of CSR spending.
For Industrial and Consumer Discretionary, 5 out of 9 companies, for Energy and Materials, 3
out of 6, for consumer staple and healthcare all the 4 companies have fulfilled the condition of
2% spend on CSR. Zee Entertainment Enterprise the only company in Telecommunications and
Media sector has not fulfilled the criteria with 1.74% spend of PAT of immediately 3 preceeding
years of 2014-15.
The present study has analyzed CSR activities of twenty five companies in India. This study was
limited in nature as annual reports for FY 2014-15 for all the companies were not available.
Future research can consider larger number of companies to assess CSR and also relation
between the size of the company with CSR spending can be done. The study concludes that 13
out of 25 companies studied have spent 2% or more than 2% of PAT of FY 12, 13 and 14. So it
can be said that although CSR spend has become mandatory, all the companies are not fulfilling
the criteria. In some cases, companies do not even spend 1% of their PAT on CSR. Also there is
no penalty for the companies not spending 2%, if they don‟t meet the 2% average spending; they
will have to give an explanation only. Also nothing is mentioned in the Act for the companies
not falling in purview of this mandatory clause of Section 135 of Companies Act 2013.
Therefore Government can align CSR provisions with income-tax laws and make appropriate
changes which are currently not included to increase the recognition for CSR and to promote and
give momentum to CSR. Also companies need to constitute a CSR Committee by assessing and
measuring the gap between the actual and ought to be spent amount on CSR
REFERENCES